And the role of Williamson… ugh. I have to say that this tied with Kieran’s “Roma” were frankly my least favorite performances. It was just so… “there”. I go back to the movie way way too often, but… well… the movie makes me go back to the movie. Kevin Spacey, awful human being though he might be, was on SUCH a tear throughout the 90s – off the top of my head, there was this, LA Confidential, and Usual Suspects – that him appearing at the top of your “all-time” list wouldn’t have raised any argument from me.
The pinpoint perfection of the shitty, teacher’s pet bullshit he brought to the character of Williamson was… well, I remember it to this day. (or is he the antagonist? or is… everybody?) Donald Webber Jr… I’m sorry… simply brought nothing memorable to the role. It was like one of those song covers where it’s like “Oh. Oh, so you just… played the song all over again? I could have just listened to the original.”
Now, Donald Webber Jr is not a bad actor, but at best his performance felt like simply reading lines off a script, and one or two times – especially the “WILL. YOU. GO. TO. LUNCH?!?!?!” line to Aronow – elicited a slight cringe. It felt a little “high school play”, if I could be a bit mean. Definitely things to work on for him as I hope he really does something to make the role “his”.
Like him or not – I don’t – Spacey made the role of Williamson “his”. His final utterance of “…because I don’t like you” is just the inevitably petty, unnecessary nail in the coffin you’d expect from someone like him. Someone who “just follows orders”, but you realize what an evil streak they have brewing right underneath the surface.
That line simply didn’t hit the same with Webber. And that’s a problem, because it’s supposed to feel like a dagger through the heart.
Oh, and the cop. Does anyone ever remember the cop from Glengarry Glen Ross? Don’t remember him much from the movie, short of everyone cussing him out, and I really don’t remember much about him from this play.
He did his job. Manhandling Levene at the end was certainly… a choice. Was that in the original play?